


Truth Hurts

by WhiteWitchDark



Series: The Flash and The Arrow [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 21:16:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7657051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteWitchDark/pseuds/WhiteWitchDark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prequal to Stand Up and Be Counted.  Joe finds out about Barry and Oliver and it doesn't go well</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truth Hurts

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda prequal to Stand Up and Be Counted. I have ideas for a few oneshots that I'm going to string together. I don't like Joe. I think he is sexist and selfish. I think he would want Iris to end up with Barry because he was the one who thought Barry what it meant to be with someone and could therefor insure he wouldn't have to worry about her.

Barry’s abrupt disappearance meant one of 2 things. Either he was at Star Labs because Team Flash needed him, or he was doing whatever it was he had been doing for the last few weeks that had Cisco checking and rechecking his suit and Caitlin calling him every few hours to check Barry had eaten something. If he didn’t know Barry better, he would think his foster son was playing around with someone. But there had been no change on that front since Christmas. So he took himself off to Star Labs.

 

There was a motorcycle in the underground parking lot and it tugged at Joe’s memory, but right that second, finding his errant son was more important than which of Wells’ associates drove one. Coming up on the Cortex, he was relieved to hear Barry’s voice, “It was just a misunderstanding. I’ll tell them. It’s cool.”  Joe slowed down as another voice he couldn’t hear clearly responded.

“That’s just ridicules!” Barry didn’t sound happy. Another murmur and Joe jumped at Cisco’s sudden appearance beside him. He was watching him with a raised eyebrow and a strawberry shoelace dangling from his mouth. Joe raised a finger to his lips before the tech could say anything and mouthed “Who is that?”

“Alright, yeah, I can see how you could see it like that, but seriously, I never even thought of it. I just figured you had to spill the beans on a mission or something.”

It had taken Cisco a moment to work out that he had meant and then he nodded once and mouthed back, “Oliver”.

Joe frowned, “What is he doing here?”

Cisco shrugged and inched forward a few more steps. Joe followed him and Oliver’s voice became clear. Joe’s hand reached and tightened around the butt of his gun. His gut was telling him something he really didn’t want to hear. “… to Lance?”

Barry sighed, “Like I said, I didn’t think about it. After you said you wanted to keep it quiet, I…” They would hear movement then, like Barry had gotten up and was pacing.

“I wanted to keep it out of the press. I didn’t mean from your family.”

“I know that now.” Material moved against material. “I just never really connected the dots.”

Oliver sighed, “Barry, you know enough about my history to know I have been in a lot of relationship with a power imbalance. They never work out well. I don’t want that for us.” Joe’s gun was half drawn. No. just no. Cisco’s mouth was hanging open, strawberry shoelace forgotten.

“Okay fine, if I promise to call you on it the next time I think you’re being a control freak, will you drop it and kiss me?”

“In the cortex?”

“If I don’t need to hide it…” Barry trailed off and Joe could hear the pout in his words, “And I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“Two days, Barry, you came to Starling two days ago.” Oliver replied with a laugh.

“Yeah, age…hmmmm”

 

Joe was around the corner and into the room before he had time to think, gun drawn. Oliver Queen was sitting on one of the chairs, Barry straddling him. Queen’s hands were under his shirt. He stopped as the two broke apart in surprise. Now he was here, he didn’t know what to do except press the gun into his leg and hope Barry didn’t notice it or where it was pointed. “Oh my god, oh, my god, oh my god… the Flash and the Arrow are together, like really together, this is so cool!”

“Cisco, breathe!” Barry laughed.

“Why didn’t you tell me, man?” Something clicked in Cisco’s brain, “Wait, this is why the suit has been giving really bizarre readings isn’t it? You’ve been running to Starling! I gotta tell Caitlin, she things you have some kind of metabolic disorder.” He was half way out the door when he changed his mind, charged back and grabbed one of Barry’s hands, pulling Barry up, “You can tell her yourself.” Then they were gone, Barry laughing and Cisco already coming up with team names.

 

Oliver watched them go, then let the swivel chair spin back around to face Joe, “Detective West”, he nodded to the gun still pointed at him, “Are you going to shot me?”

“I’m thinking about it.” Queen cocked his head to one side, and then he was moving, catching Joe’s arm and spinning him around, and down onto his knees, twisting his arm until he dropped then gun. Queen straightened up and kicked it away. It wasn’t Flash-fast, but still faster than any normal person had a right to be. Joe looked up at the hand being held out to him and then up at the man holding it. “I am not your enemy, Detective, and I am not trying to be.”

Joe could almost hear the unspoken ‘yet’, “Funny way of showing it.” The difference was slight, but perceptible to a cop of fifteen years. It wasn’t Oliver Queen on front of him anymore, it was the Arrow. Then the moment passed and the blonde stepped away with a shake of his head and a sigh, “Do you always point your gun at your children’s boyfriends? Do you point them at the girlfriends too?”

“This is the first time either of the have tried dating a murderer.” Joe shot back and climbed to his feet. His gun was on the other side of the room, near the Flash’s suit. Queen had retaken his seat, “And now we reach the real problem. Would you like me to get rid of those murder charges?”

Joe looked at him hard, “I think you should be in prison.”

Queen snorted, “Sending me to prison would just increase my kill count. If you want to stop the killing, then sending me to prison is the last thing to consider.”

“What do you mean?”

“ARGUS’s Team X project; the Suicide Squad”, Queen leaned his chair back, “If I ended up convicted, I’d be in their custody before I even left the court. Amanda Waller would be thrilled to have to way to force me back onto her leash” Queen looked at him hard, “And that leash comes with a bomb in the brain.”

Joe shook he head, “You’re making that shit up.” Queen laughed harshly, “I’d probably get 15 missions, maybe 20 before I’d worked my time off. How many people would I kill on those missions? How many times would I be ordered to torture someone? And as a Team X member, I’d have no recourse, no way to refuse… The last time I took orders from ARGUS, I was ordered to kill a 6 year old girl. If I refused the order, then my friend’s 5 year old would be shot by someone else in the exact same position as me.”

“Jesus…”

“Not the prison sentence you were expecting?” Queen didn’t wait for a response, “My turn to ask a question; who the hell taught Barry he shouldn’t get an equal say in his relationships?” Queen stood up and Joe’s mouth went dry. He was wrong, he hadn’t seen the Arrow before, but by God he was seeing him now, and what the fuck did he mean…


End file.
